The OWL Project
by Bookaholic711
Summary: Rose and Scorpius have never been friends - in fact the opposite. But sometimes people are pushed together in the worst of circumstances and forced to make the most of it.
1. Chapter 1

****Disclaimer: All characters, locations, etc belong to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended in the posting in this story.**

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"This is bad."

"Well spotted."

"This is really bad."

"I always knew they put you in Ravenclaw for a reason."

"Al, _shut up!_"

About a hundred people shushed me at once. Numerous mutterings of "Rose…" echoed through the library. Albus Potter sat across the table from me, a thoroughly ignored History of Magic book sitting open in front of him.

To others, Al always seemed to radiate kindness. I couldn't count how many times one of my dorm mates had gushed about how sweet he was, how loving, how lucky I was to have him. He was the boy every girl in our year wanted to date. Well, one of two.

Both of these boys were currently high up on my hit list, Al for being so sarcastic, and the other boy for causing the situation in the first place.

"Rose, calm down," Al said, looking straight into my eyes. "It really isn't that big a deal."

I glared in return.

Al was a good child, the golden boy of the family, and had a good appreciation of the Rose stink-eye. He knew it was not to be ignored, that it usually meant I was on the verge of shouting, and cowered appropriately. As always when he was nervous, he ran his hand through his unruly black hair, and the usual subsequent sigh came from all the girls at the surrounding tables. I laughed at them internally.

"Look, Rose," he said with exceeding caution, "all I'm saying is…"

"That it's not that big a deal?" I retorted. "_Not that big a deal?_ I was actually intending to _pass_ my O.W.L.'s thank you very much."

"This isn't exactly going to stop you."

"_What?_ Oh yes, let me just continue with my day, my O.W.L.'s and forget that I have to the most important project of my life with the _devil's spawn._ I'll just forget that he won't lift a finger to do anything, that we can't even _speak_ without yelling at each other. I'll just forget that I've hated him for years. Let me just erase all the times he's called me 'the mudblood's daughter!' What does it matter? It's not like it's going to get in the way of my future!"

I paused for breath and became aware of the fact that the entire History section of the library was staring at me. Fine, let them stare. I was on a roll.

"It's not going to stop me that I don't know a damn thing about my topic; I don't have to worry because my _partner _will be oh-so-willing to help me! I only have to think back to every time he's spat a word at me for that one! So yeah, Al. I'd say that hating my partner isn't going to stop me from doing something incredible on my O.W.L. project. I'll just forget that I'm working with _Malfoy_."

I was practically frothing at the mouth.

But the more I thought about it, the worse the situation was. The project was a new thing, a "genius" idea of Al's dad. Uncle Harry had played a big part in arranging the new prejudice-free Hogwarts. He'd created the communal room, where anyone from any House could spend the evening. He'd further mixed up the class schedules to avoid rivalries. And he'd created the O.W.L. project. Every Fifth Year had to do one. You were given a partner, someone outside of your House, usually of the opposite gender. Together, you were assigned a subject that you were both taking and that you both had to pass to proceed in your desired career track.

That's where the rules ended. You could do anything you wanted. People did the weirdest things. They created muggle calculators for Arithmancy, wrote Horoscopes for all of Hogwarts for a month, created new spells for Defense Against the Dark Arts and charmed the entire castle green for a day. There were no rules, no guidelines, simply come up with something cool and don't screw it up.

A committee consisting of the Heads of House, the Headmaster, the Head Boy and Girl and the Professor of the subject the pair were assigned graded the projects. It was tacked onto your grade for the subject. An amazing project was quite the driving force for employment. Dominique's Potions project on a potion for giving birth got her a job at St. Mungo's without any extra training. Yes, there was certainly something to be gained by doing a fantastic job.

Which, of course, was why I was so upset in the first place. My project needed to be amazing. Something out of this world. And there was no way to do an incredible project if you had a useless, hateful slug for a partner.

Al had it is easy; he'd wanted to be an Auror his whole life. So naturally, when the project came around, he was quickly assigned Defense Against the Dark Arts and one of his best friends, Ella Henderson of Hufflepuff. They would have no trouble coming up with something incredible; when it came to DADA, Albus was best in the year, and Ella was definitely in the top five.

A chair scraped along the floor and another person sat down at our table. "Rose, I love you to death, but please don't tell me you're still sulking." It was my other cousin and one of my best friends, Roxanne. Roxanne was Uncle George's daughter, and she was just as much of a laugh as he was. But she also got Aunt Angelina's serious side and both of her parents' love for Quidditch. She sat across from me now having just returned from Ravenclaw practice, pealing her Keeper's gloves off of her hands.

I nodded solemnly; Roxanne had it easy too. From the very first day of school, Roxanne had exactly two loves, and two only: Charms and Quidditch. She'd sit there on the pitch, a hundred feet up in the air, and turn everything yellow, or putting a cheering charm on the whole crowd. But there was no contest between the two. All she'd ever wanted to do was be a Charms professor. And of course, she was paired with another one of Al's friends, Kyle Quint from Gryffindor, who was looking to go into Accidental Magic Reversal. Again, another perfect match, another unbelievable project.

Of course, it was only _me_ who'd been paired with someone totally wrong. Although, I can't think of how the child of Satan could be right for anyone, so I guess they'd just had to partner him with someone, but why me?

I mean, there wasn't particularly anything wrong with Scorpius Malfoy; it was just that there was nothing right. He was annoying git, but so was half of Hogwarts. He could possibly be considered mildly attractive, but anyone could be if you squinted hard enough. He was smart, but he didn't really care enough to apply himself to anything. He was a good Quidditch player, but he basked too much in his glory. And most importantly, every single one of his actions seemed unbearably annoying to me.

All of the other girls fawned over him, dreaming about his piercing grey eyes, which I could never seem to find the beauty of, his platinum blond hair which made him look old to me, and his amazing personality, which never seemed to extend in my direction. For some reason, some wonderful, fantastic reason, all I saw was an arrogant boy who liked the limelight a little too much. And all right, he was a little bit attractive. A tiny, little, teeny-weeny, insignificant bit. If you know what I'm saying.

At any rate, he was much better looking than me, for example. I seemed to have split evenly down the line between my mother and the traditional Weasley look. Although my entire family insisted I was beautiful, I was never able to see it. My hair was a chunky, wavy mess, like my mother's, but it had the typical Weasley red. Almond-shaped plain brown eyes and splattering of freckles decorated my face, along with rose-petal lips that were supposedly "adorable." All I knew was the tip of my nose always seemed to be red and no matter how hard I tried to stop it, a horrible blush would cover my nose, cheeks and even spread to my neck at the slightest embarrassment. Although my body was slender, I never saw myself as being skinny. I was perfectly normal, cursed with a perfectly normal height of 5'6" and a perfectly normal life. It was horrible.

Along with my perfectly normal life came the perfectly normal idea of not knowing what I wanted to do with myself. All of my cousins had known from young ages exactly what their adult lives would entail. Even my little brother Hugo knew that he wanted to be wand maker, and he was two years behind me in school. But me, I had no idea.

When I'd told McGonagall that, she'd looked at me very strangely. All of the Weasleys for generations had known where they were headed in life, even if they didn't want to admit it. Uncle Charlie had loved dragons; Victorie knew the only place for her was International Cooperation. Even my father, who had ended up running Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with Uncle George, had known when the time came that he wanted to be an Auror.

So why didn't I _know_?

As I cast my mind around in that uncomfortable silence at McGonagall's desk, I tried to think of things that appealed to me. I'd always loved animals, but I didn't want to work with them. Transfiguration was fun, but I hated teaching. No, what my mind hit on was transportation.

I loved the way things moved. Since primary school, physics had fascinated me. I forced my dad to teach me about apparation and take me along. I hated flying, but the mechanics of a broom were amazing. My mum had bought me hundreds of books on the physics of flight and movement. So I did the only thing I could think of it.

I told McGonagall that I was considering going into the Ministry Department of Magical Transportation.

Big mistake. Since there was no real subject that lined up directly with transportation, McGonagall created one. It was a mixture of Charms, which were required to apparate, make portkeys, and use the floo network, and Arithmancy, which incorporated the physics and math aspects of those methods. My project grade would be split between the two subjects and naturally I was a very lucky person because there was someone else who wanted to go into the same field and whom I could work with.

Yes, Malfoy.

Damn.

There's a general rule among those who are upset. You do not ever, under any circumstances, associate yourself with the cause of your unhappiness. It only causes said misery to strengthen quite dramatically, and then it takes ages to get out of it.

Being the daughter of both my mother and my father, rules had always been a little strange to me. For my father they were made to be broken, for my mum they were more important than anything. So generally, I looked at a rule, decided if I liked it, and then either stuck with it or chucked it out the window.

Most rules were quickly chucked for being completely pointless, but there were a couple that I stuck by no matter what. That rule in particular I clung to like there was no tomorrow. An angry Rose was not fun, and I usually ended up apologizing to a lot of people the next day.

So, as I ditched my unhelpful family in the library, I held on tightly to the rule. I didn't have a destination in mind, but wherever I was going would definitely not contain Malfoy.

A grumble from my stomach prompted me to look at my watch and realize that I had totally missed dinner in my undeniable need to sulk. My location set, I headed off to the kitchens. There was a certain house-elf down there by the name of Winky who I knew would be only too happy to make me a sandwich. She and my mother worked together for a long time when Mum was in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, trying to get elf rights passed. Winky knew me from numerous dinner parties and late night discussions, and I could use an old friend right now.

Unfortunately, plans born spur of the moment in anger never work out quite right. And as I pushed open the kitchen door open, I heard the exact voice I'd been hoping to ignore.

"You don't understand, man. I can't even be in the same room as her without feeling the need to…"

"He-hem." I cleared my throat, making myself known as I walked into the kitchens.

And there sat the prince himself. Scorpius Malfoy was picking at scone, his long, graceful fingers pulling it apart and crumbling the pieces. He looked up, seeing me, and a slight pink tinge spread over his pale face, somehow accentuating his pointed chin.

"Weasley," he nodded at me.

"Malfoy," I responded. "Hey Milo."

His companion, Milo Brown, was something of a family friend. He was Aunt Audrey's cousin's nephew, or something like that. At any rate, we were related, but not by blood, and quite civil to each other. We'd never been especially close friends, but we spoke occasionally in class and waved in the hallways.

"Rose," Milo said with a smile.

The flush on Malfoy's face and Milo's slightly guilty look left no doubt in my mind that they had been talking about me. I didn't even want to know what Malfoy had had to say. In fact, just thinking about the fact that I would have to _listen_ to this ponce was starting to make me feel a little green. Food was beginning to sound mildly revolting.

"So Weasley," Malfoy started, "I was thinking-"

"We should work on our project," I finished for him.

"I was thinking Friday…"

"Five's good."

"We'll need the libra-"

"The Charms section."

And without another word to him, I turned on my heel and left the kitchens, all thoughts of food firmly put away for later, when I would no doubt become starving. Any actual conversation between Malfoy and I always ended that way. We both knew what the other was going to say before they'd actually said it. Impatient to have the contact over, we'd cut each other off, only further succeeding in annoying the other. Usually, what began as an off-handed comment ended with us yelling at each other, insults flying across the air between us. I couldn't think of a single interaction, beside the one that had just occurred, that ended without either a petty jibe or a screamed, anger-filled slander.

Malfoy and I despised each other from the beginning. Our parents had turned us against each other before we'd even gotten the chance to speak. Although we'd later found out that both of our parents had only been half serious, by that time the hatred was planted too far down to be removed. My mum had spent a summer trying to convince me to give Malfoy a break; he only hated me because of what his parents said to him. For a while, I believed her, and I came back for second year expecting to try to be friends. Well, that went down the toilet incredibly quickly. Our first conversation was the usual barb-filled banter. That was the end of any thought of being friends with Malfoy. We returned to our easy dislike of each other.

My feet had subconsciously carried me back to Ravenclaw tower, and the door broke me out of my reverie.

"Name three animals that can travel far and wide fast and may be slow but never get far away from home."

I sighed. Lately the door had been getting cheesier and cheesier. The Head Boy and Girl were in charge of supplying it with enough riddles for a couple weeks. My cousin Molly was good at her job, but as a Gryffindor she'd never understood the point of the Ravenclaw riddles, so she'd gone my mum's Internet over the summer and printed out pages of them. Most were stupid, insignificant little things. Occasionally you'd get logic. However, if you were unlucky, like I obviously was, you got trivia.

"Um…" I muttered. "A turtle. And a snail. And…"

I paused, having no idea what the last one was. "Me," I deadpanned. No response. Damn.

"Rosie!" a call echoed down the hall. Roxanne approached me, looking excited. "Thank God I found you. Al's worried that you were going to go suicidal on us."

"I'm still considering it," I mumbled.

"So, care to tell me why you're standing outside?" she asked.

I motioned wordlessly to the door, which repeated its riddle for Roxy.

"A turtle," she said right off the bat. "And a slug."

Slug, snail, same difference. We were one short. Roxanne and I stood there for a moment, thinking.

Finally, she spoke. "A fish."

I was about to give her my trademark "What?" look when the door swung open. I looked at her in amazement as we passed through the door. "How'd ya figure?"

"What?"

"The fish," I asked. "How did you get the fish?"

"Fish can swim for miles and miles, but they never leave the ocean, which is their home." Together, we sat on a couch in front of the fireplace. I nodded, understanding her reasoning.

"So," I began, "homework?"

"Psh, Rose, it's the second week back. Plus, don't you want to talk about your little tantrum?"

I rolled my eyes. "It was _not_ a tantrum."

"Fine, call it a breakdown then."

"_Roxanne!_"

"Rose…"

"Forget it," I said. "I'm going to bed."

"Oh Rosie, come on," Roxanne begged as I headed up the stairs to our dormitory. I shook my head in response.

"See you in the morning."

I reached our floor and the little room that my cousin and I shared with three other girls, Claire Schnider, Verity Cozen, and the world's biggest female dog ever, Kelly McCalman. Luckily, it was empty of both friends and dogs. There was really only one thing to do in this situation. I flopped on my bed, kicking off my shoes and putting my hair up in a sloppy bun. Reaching for my bedside table, I grabbed a piece of parchment and my favorite quill and began to write.

_Dear Mum,_

_Do you ever feel like a situation is just completely hopeless and you'd be better off giving up now? It's a very strange feeling, not one that I particularly like, especially not when it's associated with something I've looked forward to since arriving at Hogwarts. Okay, enough secrecy. I've got to tell someone. _

_We got our partners for our O.W.L. projects today. And our subjects, I suppose, but that isn't really the important part. Although you'll be interested to know that I told McGonagall that I want to go into Magical Transportation. It seems kind of interesting, and to be honest, it was the only thing I could think of. _

_So she said my subject would be a mixture of Charms and Arithmancy and my partner would be – are you ready for this? – Scorpius Malfoy. I KNOW. _

_What am I going to do, Mum? I am in need of serious advice here. He and I still can't talk civilly and now we're expected to do a project together? Not mention, what the bloody hell are we going to _do_? It's not like we can create some new method of transportation or anything…_

_Al was not being helpful; he was paired with Ella and is as happy as a pig in a wig. Roxy is working with Kyle, and well, you know her, if it has to do with Charms… I told them both to sod off; they can actually stand their partners. _

_Hugo's fine. Hope everything's well at home. Please don't tell Dad, I really don't need him to come stomping down here like he's going to murder someone. _

_Love, (although with eternal hatred)_

_Rosie_

_P.S. I HATE him, Mum. He's horrible._

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**_AN: A couple of quick things..._**

**_1) This story is part of a writing challenge entitled Project PULL. Details on my profile. _**

**_2) I wrote this ages ago and it was betaed about six months ago. I intend to rewrite pretty much the entire thing because everything but the basis of the story will be changed. However, I didn't have a chance to write anything for PULL today and I had to post a back-up story. The majority of this will be changed at some point. _**

**_3) Happy Christmas, everyone!_**


	2. Chapter 1 Rewritten

**_**Disclaimer: All characters, locations, etc belong to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended in the posting of this story**_**

_Note: First chapter, rewritten.

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I rubbed my fingers against my temples and opened my eyes, hoping that—by some miracle—I would be sitting alone at my table. And possibly that there would a box of chocolates at my elbow.

Unfortunately, I'm not that lucky. Albus Potter was still sitting across from me, running his hand through his hair and twirling a quill in his fingers.

"I still think you're over-reacting, Rosie."

I took a moment to wonder how many people I must have murdered in my past life to deserve this.

"Well, that's just freaking fantastic," I muttered.

"Sorry?" Al said. "Didn't catch that."

He ran his hand through his black hair again and a collective sigh came from the girls at the surrounding tables. I rolled my eyes.

"Never mind," I sighed. Dropping my head into my hands, I clenched fistfuls of my bushy red hair.

"Rose, he's really not that bad, you know."

There was no response to that.

No, he was not that bad. At least, when he wasn't calling me "the Mudblood's daughter," or teasing me about the time I fell off of my broom, he wasn't that bad. In small doses, I could tolerate him.

But a nine-month long partner project is not a small dosage.

"Rose, I…"

"Just shut up for a second, Al. I need to think."

Surprisingly, my cousin fell silent, and I succumbed to my thoughts.

The OWL project was a big deal. After the wizarding war, school systems had been reshuffled. The examinations stayed the same—regular finals at the end of every year, OWLs at the end of fifth year, and NEWTs at the end of seventh—but projects had also been added to the curriculum. For every year, there was one large project that made up a quarter of your final grade for a class.

In First Year, groups of four did Defense Against the Dark Arts projects. The project was designed to crush any Dark inclinations out of children, and it was surprisingly affective.

Second Year, the teachers chose the groups. In every group there were two boys and two girls, one student from each House. That year, the project was Potions oriented, trying to build inter-House relationships. Again, it was very affective. The Potions assigned couldn't be made by less than four people, particularly not four Second Years.

In Third Year, groups of three caused people to break from their usual project partners. The Charms project was notorious for creating unexpected couples.

The Fourth Year project sent the students off of the Hogwarts grounds. Groups of five were sent into London and forced to navigate the city for a week. Although Muggle Studies wasn't mandatory, the project was designed to help everyone become comfortable in the Muggle world.

But the Fifth Year project was the most important one. It was the first project that was done with a single partner, not in groups. It was also the first project where the students got to choose their own topic.

When students were called in for Career Counseling, they told their Head of House what they were most interested in. Whatever class was most related to their interest was selected for their project. The teachers selected their partner based on topic, House, and gender. Since classes had to be picked for Sixth Year, the Fifth Year project was often instrumental in getting people into the courses they would need for their careers.

Since the project coincided with the OWL examinations, it was nicknamed "the OWL project," even though it didn't actually have any connection.

OWL projects were important. In addition to class choices for Sixth Year, many employers picked people based on their OWL projects. Victorie's Potions OWL project had gotten her a job at St. Mungo's straight out of Hogwarts. There were certainly advantages to doing a great job.

The project essentially had no rules. Students did anything and everything. Some projects turned out amazing; other utterly failed. At the end of the year, every partner pair presented their project for all of the Fifth Years. The Fifth Years voted on the best project, which was presented for the entire school.

When Flitwick asked what I was interested in, I told him the blunt truth. The Muggle laws of physics and how they applied to the wizarding world fascinated me.

For a moment, he had gone on about my options, finally deciding that it was best to aim for the Department of Magical Transportation. My project would be a combination of Charms and Arithmancy, but I would need a pretty substantial knowledge of physics. He warned me how hard it would be for him to find me a suitable partner, but good ole Flitwick promised to try.

This afternoon, when the partner lists were posted in the Common Room, I found myself paired with Scorpius Malfoy.

My first action had been to flee the Ravenclaw Common Room and make a beeline for the library. Unfortunately, Al had found me before I'd finished thinking out how I was going to react to this.

As Al had pointed out, Malfoy was not all that bad. Sure, he was a bit of a prat, but the general population of Hogwarts seemed to like him. He's smart; he has quite a lot of friends. Merlin knows that more than enough of the girls think he's fit. In fact, he and Al seem to be competing for the title of Most Attractive Boy in Hogwarts.

I think they're both full of it.

Somehow, I had just never gotten sucked into Malfoy's charm. Maybe it was just because our parents had pitted us against each other before we met or maybe it was that he was my academic competition. We just never seemed to get along. On rare occasions, we would find ourselves yelling at each other from opposite sides of the Great Hall, but mostly our dislike was much more subtle. We glared at each other when we passed in the halls. We argued when we were paired together in class. We did everything we could to avoid each other.

"How is she?" a voice whispered, coming from Al's direction.

"She's holding up," Al responded. "She told me to let her think about five minutes ago, and she hasn't moved since."

"She kind of looks like she's asleep," a third voice chimed in. This voice was so easily recognizable to me that I almost opened my eyes to glare at its source.

It was the voice of Roxanne, my cousin and my closest friend. A fellow Ravenclaw, Roxy and I had grown incredibly close since we started Hogwarts. We hadn't seen each other that much growing up, but Al and I had been separated on our first night, and Roxy and I bonded by necessity.

Most likely, Roxy had just finished Quidditch practice and had heard about my OWL project partner from some cousin or another. They had sent her up here.

Sure enough, when I opened my eyes, Roxy was still in her Quidditch robes, her Keeper's gloves still on her hands. On Al's other side stood Ella Henderson, his OWL partner and one of his best friends.

Al had had no trouble picking a topic. From the very beginning, he had wanted to be an Auror. No matter how many times Aunt Ginny had told him that he didn't have to be his father, Al persisted. Ella—a Hufflepuff who I vaguely knew—apparently shared his passion, and they had been paired together with a Defense Against the Dark Arts topic.

"Oh look!" Roxy exclaimed. "She lives!"

I groaned. "Shut up."

"Seriously Rose," she continued. "You shouldn't be sulking about this. You're lucky to have a partner at all, given your topic."

Assigning Roxy a partner must have taken all of two seconds. From the cradle, she'd had exactly two loves: Quidditch and Charms. All she wanted to do was be a Charms teacher. So many careers involved Charms that the professors must've had their pick with her partner.

"Who's you're partner then?"

She sat up straight and grinned. "Kyle Quint."

Al cut in before I could respond. "Oh, Kyle's great! He's one of my closest friends!"

As if we didn't know who Kyle was. I had fancied him for the better part of Third Year. Roxy liked to bring this fact up whenever possible, and would most likely be rubbing it in my face for most of the evening.

Ella rolled her eyes. "Albus, _everyone_ knows who Kyle is."

Al furrowed his eyebrows. "How? And don't call me Albus. My mum calls me that when she's angry."

"No, she doesn't," Roxy said. "She's calls you Al. And everyone knows who Kyle is because he's hot."

He opened his mouth to speak again and found himself flailing. Finally, he furrowed his eyebrows and spoke. "I have no response to that."

"Good," Roxy amended. "For a second I thought you were going to agree with me, and then I would have had to interrogate you about your sexual preferences."

"Please, Roxy," I said. "Not in the library. That's much more of a kitchens type of conversation."

She rolled her eyes. "Not all of us skipped dinner to mope, Rosie."

My head snapped up. "_Skipped dinner?_ You're kidding. There's no way that it's past 7:00."

"Hate to break it to you, Rose," Roxy said, turning away from me as she spoke. "Now Al, tell me, have you been feeling any… _urges_ lately?"

As Al struggled for an answer, I picked up my bag and slipped away from the table. That was one conversation for which I really didn't need to be present.

I left the library with the intent to go the Common Room, but I found myself wandering.

What should my reaction be to having to work with Malfoy? Was it worth it to get upset? Should I just go with it and hope to God that he pulled his weight? Somehow, we had ended up with the same topic, so he must have _some_ interest in it. Maybe it would be fine. Maybe having a partner who I rarely spoke civilly with and tended to think of as a hateful slug wouldn't ruin my project.

Maybe I was delusional.

But what was my other option? There was no way that McGonagall would let me switch partners; even if she would, there was no one else interested in my topic. Like it or not, Malfoy was my only choice. Throwing a fuss wouldn't change anything.

I made this decision as I walked past the kitchens, and decided that a sandwich wasn't a bad idea. I had skipped dinner, after all. But as I pushed the door open, I heard a voice that definitely didn't belong to one of the house-elves.

"…hiding in the library all day and I can't even…"

The voice cut off as soon as I walked into sight. House-elves mobbed me to take my order, and once I had convinced them that I really just wanted a sandwich, I looked over toward the table.

Malfoy was staring at me in surprise, his friend Milo Brown sitting at his side. Milo grinned at me. I was related to him somehow; he was Aunt Audrey's second cousin once removed or something along those lines.

"Hello Rosie," he said, holding out his hand for a fist bump.

"All right, Milo?" I responded, touching my fist to his.

He nodded, and then inclined his head slightly toward Malfoy.

I winced, sitting down and hoping that my sandwich would come before decorum required that I speak to Malfoy. It did not.

"Malfoy?" I asked. "All right there?"

He shook his head quickly and blinked. "Just peachy."

"Hmm," was all I could say. A house-elf arrived next to me carrying a plate with my sandwich on her head. I slipped a few sickles to her as she placed it in front of me. She blushed and bowed before hurrying away.

"Tipping the wait-staff, eh, Weasley?" Milo asked teasingly. "Channeling your mother spirit with that spew thing?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's S.P.E.W. An initialism, not an acronym."

"Whatever," he responded. "Can I have a bite?"

"Why don't you just get your own?" Nonetheless, I surrendered my sandwich to him.

"So Malfoy," I began. "We should really get started on our—"

"Project, yes," he cut me off. "Shall we meet tomorrow—"

"The library. Charms section. Around—"

"Six," he finished.

"Good." In our flurry of finishing each other's sentences, we'd forgotten that Milo was there. He was now giving us both very strange looks, so I grabbed my food from him and stood up.

"I'll see you there, then." I gave Milo a little wave and fled the kitchens before Malfoy could respond.

All of our conversation seemed to go like that. Once we got over the initial barrier of awkwardness and didn't start screaming, we knew what the other was going to say. We finished each other's sentences, not so much because we could, but because it made the conversation move much quicker. The faster we talked, the more quickly we could be rid of each other. Goodbye and good riddance.

What would we do when we were forced to spend hours together? When we didn't instinctively know what the other was going to say? When we were finally forced to interact and value each other's opinions? Would we actually be able to do it?

I went back to considering kicking up a fuss about the whole partner situation.

Arriving back at the door to the Common Room, I saw Roxy running toward me from the other direction.

"There she is," she said, slapping me on the back. "I was beginning to worry that you'd gone suicidal on me."

My eyes hit the ceiling as I held up my sandwich. "So, any breakthroughs regarding Al's sexual preferences?"

"Not enough evidence to conclude," Roxy responded. She reached out to touch the door. "Why isn't this thing detecting people in the area like it used to?"

I forgave her for ending a sentence with a preposition because it was a legitimate question. "No idea."

Finally, the door spoke up. "What three animals can travel far and wide without ever leaving home?"

I hit my hand against my forehead. "What is _up_ with these questions?"

"The Heads must have run out of good ones," Roxy said. "Um…"

"A turtle," I threw in. "It carries its home on its back."

"So does a snail," Roxy added. "So that's two."

Far and wide without ever leaving home. Home could refer to an actual house, or it could be a relative thing. A lot of people claimed that someone else was their home; other's that their home was wherever they got a certain feeling.

"A fish," I decided. "They can travel forever, but they never leave the ocean."

"Brilliant!" the door declared, swinging open. I couldn't help but think I heard a little sarcasm in its voice.

"Someone needs to fix that thing," I muttered as we entered the Common Room.

Roxanne swept straight into her favorite chair. "So, are you going to tell me, or do I have to coax it out of you?"

"What?"

Roxy rolled her eyes. "What are you going to do? You must have a plan. You always have a plan. Are you going to go to Flitwick and beg? Are you going to put up with him? Are you finally going to accept all the romantic tension between you two and just go with your instincts?"

"No to the first one," I responded, observing a group of First Years on the other side of the room. "No to the second one. And a definite, resounding no to the third one."

"Damn," she said. "One can hope. So what _do _you plan to do?"

"Eat my sandwich," I looked over at the fire. "Write a letter to my mum." Finally, I glanced toward the staircase. "And go to bed."

"Rose! It's like eight o'clock!"

I looked back at Roxy, taking a bite of my sandwich. "What else would you recommend?"

"I don't know!" she burst out. "Talking! Hanging out with your fantastic cousin! Going to bed at a normal hour!"

Miraculously, my sandwich was gone. "I'm tired," I amended. "I'm going to bed."

Roxy rolled her eyes and walked toward a group of friends. "Whatever, Rose. See you in the morning."

I scampered up to my dormitory. Roxanne and I shared it with three other girls, Claire Schnieder, Varity Cozen, and Kelly McCalman, but they were all down in the Common Room.

My bed was buried under a pile of books that I had taken out this morning. I had been frantically searching for a topic that interested me, something that I could tell Professor Flitwick I wanted to do as my OWL project. They were all useless now. I would return them to the library tomorrow.

I cleared them off, placing them in a precarious stack on my nightstand. I threw my bag onto a hook next to my bed, shoving half-written essays from my bed into it. My favorite quill was lying next to an open inkwell, which was threatening to spill. I put the inkwell on the nightstand—I would find the cap later—and pulled a blank piece of parchment out from under my bed.

_Dear Mum,_

_It's not easy to find time to write. Fifth Year is already hectic and every single teacher has taken an entire class to remind us about how important our OWLs are. Of course, if they'd stop talking about it and actually start teaching, I'm sure we'd all do much better on the exams. _

_I was hoping that the first time I wrote I would have good news: the name of my OWL partner. Of course, I do have his name, but I'm not sure if I would consider it good news. _

_As you know, I'm not really sure where I want to go. I told Flitwick about physics, and he decided that the best fit was Magical Transportation. He gave me a combination of Charms and Arithmancy and told me to hope that they could find me a partner. _

_The teachers found a partner, of course. I'm not quite sure whether that's a good thing; it might have been better to do the project on my own. I'm working with Malfoy, Mum. The same Malfoy that Dad told me on the very first day that I was to beat in every test. The same Malfoy that's been teasing me for five years and that I've never had a normal conversation with. And now the future of my career rests partially in his unwilling hands. _

_I'm not quite sure how to take this. Should I try to find a new partner? I know there's no one else with my topic, but I'm not sure that we can work together. Is it worth the effort to kick up a fuss about it? _

_Malfoy isn't _really_ that bad, I supposed. Everyone else in this school must see _something _in him. Maybe it will work out. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow afternoon. _

_Hugo's fine. I'll order him to write, but you know how much good it will do. Please don't tell Dad. He'll probably storm over here and throw the administration into a frenzy. There's nothing to be done, and I certainly can't work well with Malfoy if my father is attempting to murder him. I'll be fine. _

_Love you,_

_Rose_

_

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_**AN: Hey there people. Let's get started so you can all skip the AN as usual. :)**_

_**1) As always, this is a Project PULL post. If you don't know what PULL is, visit the Project PULL FanFiction account (username Project PULL) for details. Thank you to my amazing PULL admin: xXIceShadowXx and To Kill a Mockingjay. DFBTA, guys. **_

_**2) This is the first chapter. Obviously. After a few days, I will be removing the original first chapter and replacing it with this. From here on out, everything posted will be the new version. **_

_**3) Thanks to xXIceShadowXx for betaing this. :D**_

_**Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!  
-Bookaholic711 **_


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